RAZOR RAY IS BOUNCED FOR THE REST OF THE CAMPAIGN

POLARISING AFL umpire Ray Chamberlain will not officiate again this season after being dropped for this weekend’s preliminary finals.

While there had been some suggestions Chamberlain had suffered an injury, The Hobart Mercury understands it was a performance- based decision to leave ‘ Razor Ray’ out of this week’s umpiring line- up.

Full umpiring appointments for the two preliminary finals will be announced on Wednesday night. One of the competition’s most experienced umpires, Chamberlain has officiated 18 games this season and 331 across his career.

However, his bouncing of the ball has come under fire in recent weeks. Geelong coach Chris Scott called out Chamberlain at halftime in the Cats’ qualifying final against

Port Adelaide for off- centre and shallow centre bounces. Some in the umpiring fraternity were surprised that Chamberlain didn’t simply recall his shoddy bounces and throw the ball up to sidestep the furore.

Despite the controversy, Chamberlain was backed in and umpired Geelong’s semifinal clash with Collingwood where his bouncing was again an issue.

Two- time North Melbourne premiership player David King said post- game that Chamberlain needed to leave others to bounce the ball and instead focus on his other strengths.

“I’m not sure why we’re persisting with it. It’s not your strength Ray, you’re a great umpire but he just doesn’t get the height in his bounces,” King said on Fox Footy’s First Crack.

“It doesn’t sound like a big issue, but when you’ve got a trio in there at ground level looking to put a move on and get their timing right to arrive as the tap is about to happen, ( sometimes) no one even gets a tap at it and it basically becomes play on.

“Let’s be mature enough to say ‘ Ray, umpire the games, no problem, but you cannot take the bounces.’ Simple as that.”

It leaves Matt Stevic, Shaun Ryan, Simon Meredith, Jacob Mollison, Robert Findlay, Craig Fleer and Curtis Deboy set for preliminary final appointments.